Time ticks for House reapportionment plan

Time is ticking for the Legislature to come up with a House of Representatives seat reapportionment or redistricting plan within 120 days from the publication of Census 2010 results. Failure to do so could pave the way for Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to do it himself or voters could ask the court to do it. Some lawmakers, however, are unsure whether the 120-day period started on Aug. 24, 2011, or on Jan. 5, 2012.

Rep. Ray Yumul (R-Saipan) said “what we should do now is deliberate on initiatives and bills” that have something to do with reapportionment or redistricting,” referring to Rep. Joseph Palacios’ (R-Saipan) initiative seeking to reduce the number of House Saipan members from 18 to nine.

Palacios’ initiative has yet to be acted on by the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations-almost a year since it was introduced in February 2011.

“If the Legislature does not do anything, then the governor will do it. Or any voter could petition the court if both the Legislature and the governor fail to do anything, just like what happened when former senator [Frica] Pangelinan and Tina Sablan did in 2007,” Yumul told Saipan Tribune.

Under Article II Section 4(a) of the CNMI Constitution, the Legislature shall, at least every 10 years and within 120 days following publication of the results of the decennial census, reapportion the seats in the House or revise the districts for electing representatives as required by changes in Commonwealth population or by law.

Section 4(b) states that if the Legislature fails to act, the governor shall promulgate a reapportionment or redistricting plan within 120 days after the expiration of the time for the Legislature to act.

Palacios’ House Legislative Initiative 17-4 seeks to amend Article 2 Section 4(a) and (b), and create a new subsection to cut the number of Saipan House members from 18 to nine.

Currently, the House has 20 members: 18 from Saipan, and one each from Rota and Tinian.

The initiative seeks only one election district for Saipan instead of the current five, and nine House members will represent that single Saipan district.

Palacios said his initiative will save the CNMI over $1 million.

Yumul said the question is whether the 120-day count began around Aug. 24, 2011, when the U.S. Census Bureau released the CNMI’s population count.

In that report, the Census Bureau said the CNMI’s population shrunk by 22.2 percent or by 15,338 in a 10-year period-from 69,221 in 2000 to 53,883 on April 1, 2010. That report also revealed the population of every election district in the CNMI.

Around Jan. 5, 2012, the Census Bureau and the CNMI Department of Commerce issued another set of Census 2012 data, this time providing the population count of every village on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.

Yumul, upon consultation with the House legal counsel, said the 120 days could have started around Jan. 5, 2012.

As of yesterday, the Fitial administration has yet to comment on whether the 120 days started in August or this month.

If another legal opinion states that the 120-day period began in August, then that means that period had already lapsed for the Legislature in December and the governor can come up with his own plan.

Palacios said yesterday that all the Census 2010 data that could help the JGO Committee decide whether to approve or reject his initiative have been released so there’s no reason to delay action on it any further.

“The population of the CNMI, especially Saipan, went down and that alone justifies my initiative to reduce the number of House seats for Saipan,” Palacios told Saipan Tribune.

Saipan’s population went down by 22.7 percent or by 14,172-from 62,392 in 2000 to 48,220 in 2010.

Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan), chairman of the JGO Committee, said his panel has started compiling materials needed to decide on Palacios’ initiative.

As an individual lawmaker, Demapan supports the proposal to reduce the number of Saipan House members. “But I am just one of the members of the committee. It’s not only me to decide, it’s the whole committee. But my goal as a JGO Committee chairman is to act on this initiative way before the deadline to be able to have this voted on by voters in the November election,” he said.

As for the constitutional timelines on reapportionment and redistricting, Palacios said he has yet to get information about this.

Rep. Froilan Tenorio (Cov-Saipan) said that, while he has yet to find out when, if at all, the Census data was officially released, he supports the idea of having only one election district for Saipan.

“I want to do something with redistricting. I want just one election district on Saipan. That way everyone will be elected by just one district. I am surprised that some members I thought who would not agree with me on this support the idea. To me, the island of Saipan is too small. We fight over money, we fight over local appropriations bills. I don’t think we should continue doing that. Everyone should be elected islandwide,” he said.

Of Saipan’s five election districts or precincts, Precinct 3 is the most populated with 15,624. This precinct covers San Antonio, Koblerville, As Lito, Chalan Piao, Dandan, parts of San Vicente, among other villages.

Precinct 1 is not far behind, with a population of 15,160. Its villages include Garapan, San Jose, Puerto Rico, and portions of Capital Hill.

Precinct 5 is third with a population of 7,207, covering Kagman and portions of San Vicente, among other villages.

Precinct 2 ranks fourth with 6,382 individuals in Chalan Kanoa and Susupe.

Precinct 4 has the smallest population with only 3,847, covering Tanapag, San Roque, As Teo, and Marpi, among other areas.